Statement by His Grace
Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United
Kingdom

12 October 2017

Another day in
Egypt with another Coptic Christian murdered; this time a priest from Beni
Suef, Upper Egypt, who was in Cairo collecting humanitarian aid for vulnerable members of his parish. Fr Samaan was paying a pastoral visit to a family in Cairo
and returned to the church where he was earlier to collect his mobile phone. On
the way, he was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant who chased him, stabbed
him repeatedly, and then brutally killed him.

This incident makes us once again ask so
many questions. Why should a priest not be able to walk safely down a street,
especially a suburban street in Cairo? Why should he be chased by a man
brandishing a deadly weapon and have no one run to his aid; in actual fact,
everyone was running away. Why, when he lay drenched in his own blood did the
ambulance service not arrive for over an hour, and then not treat him? Why,
when the police finally arrived, and he lay dead, was a crime scene not secured
and forensic evidence not collected to enable a robust and serious
investigation? Why is his assailant immediately deemed mentally incapable
without professional diagnosis, and why, if he is incapable, and a known
violent criminal, is he left in the community with weapons within his reach?

After the initial shock and the immense
sadness, today is a day that brings anger and I am not apologetic for that
anger. I would be just as angry if this was any other person being dealt with
in this way, in any other part of Egypt or indeed any other part of the world.
Yet he is a Christian, a Coptic Christian, and a Coptic priest, which makes it
all the more close and all the more painful.

Just this week I have been with a Coptic
delegation from Cairo seeking grants to serve not only the Coptic community but
the wider Egyptian community. Grants that would cover health, education and
poverty eradication. Where was this wider Egyptian community however when
Father Samaan ran terrified through a street being chased by a violent
criminal, and where was it when he lay dying and alone? Where was it when the
assailant attacked him repeatedly, and where will it be while his family and
congregation grieve the loss of their father, husband, brother, pastor and
friend? These are questions that need to be addressed at every level of
Egyptian community and leadership.

Crime cannot be totally eradicated, but
at least it needs to be properly investigated, prosecuted, and shown to be a
violation against the whole state and not just its immediate victim.

The immense pain of this incident and
all that have preceded it, including: child kidnapping, forced conversion,
individual targetting, bus attacks and church bombings against the Coptic
Orthodox community in Egypt, leads us to hold more strongly onto the words of
our Lord God in Exodus 3:7: “I
have surely seen the oppression of
My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry…for I know their sorrows.” Coptic Christians who have endured injustice, persecution, and
loss of life for centuries without retaliation, repeatedly forgiving unconditionally,
deserve to live with respect and dignity in their indigenous homeland.

While recognising that anger may often
open a path to hatred or resentment, there are times at which it is a natural expression
of a human emotion, and reaction to a sense of deep injustice. I am sure that I
am not alone in my anger, but that it is shared by every law-abiding person of
any belief and indeed of none, who has witnessed this vicious and inhumane
attack. In the midst of this anger and this sadness however I continue to pray.
I pray repose for Father Samaan, I pray for his family, I pray for his
community. I pray for the wider Egyptian Christian community that feels more
and more vulnerable and targeted daily against a backdrop of negligence and
injustice. I pray for the wider Egyptian society, that becomes more and more discredited
and compromised as these incidents continue to happen.

This anger is not void of forgiveness,
but cries out for accountability and justice.

*Ends*

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